Transfofa em Blog

segunda-feira, junho 30, 2008

[Portugal]Movimentos sociais juntam-se à marcha - Parada LGBT junta um milhar de pessoas no Príncipe RealCerca de um milhar de apoiantes da causa LGBT (lésbica, gay, bissexual e transgéneros) juntaram-se esta tarde na Praça do Príncipe Real, em Lisboa para mais uma parada LGBT.Marcha LGBT - Orientação sexual não é um tema “fracturante” “Fracturante é a discriminação.” Esta foi a palavra de ordem do manifesto da marcha anual do movimento de lésbicas, gays, bissexuais e transgéneros (LGBT), que ontem reuniu em Lisboa cerca de mil activistas e apoiantes.Orgulho sai do armário para pedir leis mais justas - Pelo reconhecimento das relações familiares não convencionais"Homem verdadeiro leva no pandeiro". Esta foi uma das palavras de ordem da parada do orgulho homossexual realizada ontem em Lisboa, mistura de festa e manifestação que juntou cerca de mil pessoas, com pouca política, muitas plumas e alguma (escassa) nudez.Foto Reportagem: Dia LGBT em Lisboa[Portugal] Indemnização recusada à mãe de GisbertaSegundo o Jornal Correio da Manhã, a Comissão de Protecção às Vítimas de Crimes não vai atribuir qualquer indemnização à mãe de Gisberta, a mulher transexual sem-abrigo, que em 2006 morreu no Porto afogada num poço após vários dias de agressões perpetradas por 13 jovens.[India] Sunday's gay parade in India marks 1969 Stonewall riots in New YorkExcerpt: The sexual minorities are pressing for other demands, as well. For instance, the Bangalore-based GAY and Sangama, two sexual minorities' forums, want sex change facilities in the city's leading hospitals, provisions for sex reassignment surgeries for transgender groups and welfare schemes for the LGBT people.Gay pride rally turns curious heads in BangaloreOn a breezy Sunday afternoon, about 600-700 gays, lesbians, bisexuals, trans-genders and their frenzied supporters caused a flutter in India's IT hub by staging a colourful "pride rally" to observe the Stonewall Riots Day under the watchful eye of a vigilant police. The two-hour rally, flagged off from a city college grounds in upscale Basavangudi suburb, once populated by conservative Brahmins, culminated at Town Hall for a public meeting to the beats of drums, blaring music and a native dance by about 100 activists comprising hijras, kothis (feminine homosexuals) and 'double-dekkers' (local term for transsexuals) .[Canada] High turnout expected for Toronto's Pride ParadeThousands of revellers will step out onto downtown Toronto streets Sunday afternoon for the annual Pride Parade.Skies clear for Dyke MarchExcerpt: Of course, not everyone at the event was either a dyke or transsexual - the other group of prominence at today's march. Women of all ages were seen walking around holding the hands of their husbands.[USA] Transgender people fight for equal employment rightsDiane Shroer is a retired U.S. Army colonel who made the transition from male to female in 2004. When she applied for a job with the Library of Congress as a specialist in terrorism and international crime as David, when she was legally a man, she was hired.Congress comes out to the Transgender Community - Part 2You never seem to see Congressman Barney Frank enter or leave a room, or so it seems to me on every occasion I have seen or talked with him personally. Even sitting at the witness table, he folds his hands in front of him with his palms flatly on the table and bends over and rests his chin on them to lower his profile. But, when the time comes, Barney Frank literally explodes in your face and you know you're in a room with a very astute and respected politician.[Blog/Commentary] The Religious Right comments on the Transgender Workplace Discrimination HearingsNearly every major Religious Right organization opposing LGBT rights has commented on the Congressional Hearing on Discrimination Against Transgender Americans in the Workplace, which was held on Thursday, June 26th. Here's a look at what some of them have said.

[TN, USA] [Commentary] Rights groups mum on beatingExcerpt: But from the folks who rally the troops when police brutality rears its head, especially when the officers are white and the victimis black (as was the case in the Feb. 12 incident), well, the silence was deafening.

[NY,USA] On the frontier of transgender civil rightsAlthough the gay community has increasingly been assimilated into the mainstream, those identified as transgender seem to remain on the fringes of society[USA] Lynn Edward Harris (1950 - ) actor, bookkeeper.Lynn Elizabeth Harris was born in Orange, California, south of Los Angeles, with ambiguous genitals. She was not surgically 'corrected', and was raised as female. Her father was a character actor, who left when she was a young child. Lynn was an intelligent child who could recite Shakespeare at age 3.

[UK] Transsexual suffers verbal abuse in Gloucester pubA TRANSSEXUAL has spoken of her distress after suffering a "barrage of abuse" in a Gloucester pub.Paula, from Cheltenham, says she was sworn at and humiliated at a meeting of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender network.

[India] Transgenders scripting success in Tamil NaduKalki is a highflying transgender IT professional. But her road to success wasn't easy. Her parents she says didn't accept her sexual orientation and forced her to take male hormone tablets. Away from home she was often a victim of sexual abuse. These factors only inspired her to dream big. Now the techie also runs a foundation for the betterment of transgenders.

[India] Boy or girl? India's hermaphrodites slowly fit inBorn with both male and female genitalia, a life of uncertainty seemed to await Ali and his family, but changing attitudes means hermaphrodites once-scorned in India are finding their place.[USA] 'I'm a Girl' -- Understanding Transgender ChildrenLast year Barbara Walters spoke with the families of three transgender children who agreed to share their story. Now, one year later, "20/20" has reached out to the families again to learn what's happened since the original episode aired. All three families said that the story helped change their world for the better. Advocacy groups also report a significant surge in young transgenders coming out.[TN,USA] Prejudice Police?Inmate beating brings up issue of transgender discrimination.[USA] [Blog/Commentary] Mostly Absent From The Hearing, But Commenting As If They Were ThereOne of the things I noticed about the An Examination of Discrimination Against Transgender Americans in the Workplace hearing is that minus the Alliance Defense Fund, there weren't any conservative Christian organizations speaking at the hearing; minus the Traditional Values Coalition any conservative Christian organizations leaving press materials at the hearing; and minus the ranking minority member of the subcommittee (Rep. John Kline, R-MN) there were no Republicans there to ask questions of the witnesses at the hearing.[Blog/Commentary] ContrastThe US House of Representatives Health, Employment, Labor and Pensions Subcommittee held, for the very first time, a hearing on "An Examination of Discrimination Against Transgender Americans in the Workplace" yesterday.[Blog/Commentary] Congressional BlackoutExcerpt: What's wrong with this picture is that with the exception of Diego Sanchez, (second from the top) every other participant in it is white. There are no African-American transgender people testifying at this hearing.[Blog/Commentary] Congress comes out to the Transgender Community - Part 1Angela has been an activist for the transgender community is some form or another for the last 42 years. Some of our community's activists weren't even born then. She has been on the board of NTAC, It's Time, North Carolina and the several other organizations too numberous to mention. Currently, she serves as the Vice President of the Transgender American Veterans Association (TAVA) and is one of its Co-Founders. Also, Angela is one of my closest friends.Congressional Hearing on Transgender Discrimination 1/8<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKC3IQK8SvI>Congressional Hearing on Transgender Discrimination 2/8<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mb1bzrzth3I>Congressional Hearing on Transgender Discrimination 3/8<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDmpBtLDEKs>Congressional Hearing on Transgender Discrimination 4/8<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgtPNzXf_cQ>Congressional Hearing on Transgender Discrimination 5/8<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrMKOa1vJgo>Congressional Hearing on Transgender Discrimination 6/8<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnCzQW0AK0E>Congressional Hearing on Transgender Discrimination 7/8<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nysg30HK5Y>Congressional Hearing on Transgender Discrimination 8/8<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0sU4zrUVzI>

[USA] [PR] ACLU Applauds First-Ever Congressional Hearing on Gender Identity in the WorkplaceThe American Civil Liberties Union today applauded the House Education and Labor Subcommittee on Heath, Employment, Labor, and Pensions for holding the first-ever congressional hearing on transgender issues and gender identity discrimination in the workplace. Chaired by Representative Robert Andrews (D-NJ), the committee heard from retired Army Colonel and ACLU client Diane Schroer. The ACLU is currently representing Schroer in a Title VII sex discrimination lawsuit against the Library of Congress.Transgenders air their plight on Capitol HillAfter getting hired as a national security analyst with the Library of Congress, David Schroer took his new boss out to lunch to share some news: On his first day of work, he planned to show up as Diane.[Blog/Commentary] A Congressional FirstAt Pam's blog, Autumn Sandeen gives her reaction to the historic hearing by the House Health, Employment, Labor and Pensions Subcommittee on the topic of workplace discrimination against the transgendered -- the first hearing of its kind in Congressional history.

[WI,USA] Three protest treatment of transgenders at clubExcerpt: Her name and appearance identifies her as a woman, but her identification lists her as a man, and she said she doesn't plan on having the necessary surgery to complete her transformation from male to female.

Transgender Sierra Broussard, right, and supporters Faye Robinson, center, and Caralee Carpenter, left, all of Appleton, walk along College Avenue in front of Park Central in downtown Appleton Thursday evening. Post-Crescent photo by M.P. King

Excerpt: "We found out they were playing my music by chance," the 32-year-old Aderet said on Wednesday. She grew up in a religious home in Jerusalem and launched her musical career after undergoing a sex change operation following her IDF service over 10 years ago.

Egged on by his gay partner to go for a sex change so that they could marry, a man undergoing the process found to his dismay that his partner showed no interest in him any more nor could he return to his original self now.

Like many such celebrations, the Twin Cities Pride celebration takes place in June, in part to commemorate New York City's Stonewall Inn uprising, which began in June 1969, and is widely recognized as a galvanizing event in the history of sexual rights organizing.

Despite the mountains of surveillance data about HIV/AIDS, when it comes to the transgender community there is precious little information about the scope of the epidemic. Lee Thornhill, prevention and education manager for TransCEND (Transgender Care and Education Needs Diversity), a trans-focused program at Cambridge Cares About AIDS, said based on the program's work and the experiences of their clients it is clear that transgender women are at increased risk for HIV infection. Yet when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and local health departments collect surveillance data on new infections, trans women are generally coded into a risk category that does not square with their own identity: men who have sex with men (MSM).

A handful of San Francisco's LGBT elected and appointed officials – joined by more than a dozen gay, youth, housing, and labor activists – gathered at the LGBT Community Center on Tuesday, June 24 with a message that they said was in the spirit of unity and LGBT Pride: Boycott the Human Rights Campaign's fundraising dinner next month.

Now in its fifth year, the annual Trans March will kick off Pride weekend Friday night with what organizers expect will be its largest crowd yet. Attendance could number 10,000 marchers this year as several hot button issues have focused attention on concerns facing the transgender community.

As a polymer and fiber engineering professor, Dr. Gwynedd Thomas teaches Auburn University students about the correct composition of protective body armor. In a way, she says, this instruction is a metaphor for the protective yet false shield she carried around most of her life. Until recently, she begrudgingly accepted and portrayed her birth gender—male—so she wouldn't have to face the social repercussions.

Today, for the first time ever, Congress is holding a hearing to educate Members of Congress exclusively on gender identity issues.This groundbreaking event should also lay the groundwork for congressional action to prohibit arbitrary discrimination against transgender Americans.

The last few minutes were highlighted for me by Sabrina Tarabolleti's disclosure that she's been fired (again) from a job patching potholes by the Florida Dept. of Transportation … and by Rep. Andrews' closing remarks about "progress is glacial … and it can be even slower than that … " and his comments about the need to help the forgotten or neglected, who have few votes and little money or power.

Today the House Education and Labor Committee's Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor and Pensions held a hearing on discrimination against transgender employees. Retired U.S. Army Colonel Diane Schroer, a highly-decorated veteran who transitioned from male to female after 25 years of distinguished service in the Army, testified before the committee. Diane interviewed for a job as a terrorism research analyst at the Library of Congress and accepted the position, but the job offer was rescinded when she told her future supervisor that she was in the process of gender transition. The ACLU is now representing her in a Title VII sex discrimination lawsuit against the Library of Congress. This is her testimony.

As more state and local governments extend anti-bias protections to transgender people, fierce opposition is surfacing. In Colorado, conservatives contend a new state law will enable sexual predators to frequent women's bathrooms; in Maryland a "Not My Shower" campaign seeks to overturn a comparable county law. Though frustrated by the resistance, and insistent that the alarms are unfounded, transgender rights activists are heartened by an overall trend toward greater protection under the law. In the past 15 years, 13 states and more than 90 cities and counties – home to roughly 40 percent of the U.S. population – have passed measures banning various types of discrimination against transgender people.

quinta-feira, junho 26, 2008

Pashe Keqi recalls the day nearly sixty years ago when she decided to become a man. She chopped off her long black curls, traded in her dress for her father's baggy trousers, armed herself with a hunting rifle and vowed to forsake marriage, children and sex.

There is a political group within the Transsexual movement called "HBS" or "Harry Benjamin Syndrome".

I'll quote from the The Original HBS Site :

Harry Benjamin's Syndrome is an intersex condition developed in the early stages of pregnancy affecting the process of sexual differentiation between male and female. This happens when the brain develops as a certain sex but the rest of the body takes on the physical characteristics of the opposite sex. The difference between this and most other intersex conditions is that there is no apparent evidence until much later after the baby is born or even as late as adolescence.

This column included a rather shrill letter from a gay man who wouldn't let his name be published "for fear of the gay thought police." He was responding to a column by transsexual Nina Arsenault. Since she is well known, Ms. Arsenault really does not represent the lives of many of us who continue to struggle with an isolation that your correspondent, quite frankly, has contributed to.

Supervisor Tom Ammiano probably gave the best characterization of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), a national gay rights organization that is currently on the hot seat for dropping "gender identity" from the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), the Congressional gay rights bill. Said Ammiano, who is running for State Assembly this November: "HRC shouldn't be the Human Rights Cowards."

The 5th annual Trans Price March will take place Friday June 27th in Dolores Park. There will be a rally at Dolores and 19th Street starting at 3pm. Thirty different Trans and gender-variant live bands, artists and performers will be featured on stage in a spectacular pre-march show. The march itself will begin at 7 pm, circling through the Castro, down Market and back to Dolores Park for additional music and performances.

The theme of this year's march is "Marching for a Gender Inclusive ENDA", with an objective to bring a focus on transgender civil rights and to celebrate the support of the LGBT family.

This past week, I made the decision to begin identifying as male. The decision to be male-identified and start hormone therapy hasn't been a sudden one for me, but it's been building for the past several years. Anyone who has known me over the past few years is probably not particularly surprised. I'm harboring relatively few serious concerns about this transition, mostly out of awareness that I have an incredibly trans-aware and trans-identified group of friends and that my girlfriend is the most supportive person in the world. Opening this door makes me feel as though a huge weight has been lifted off my chest, and I'm very excited to be undertaking this process.

In about a week, we will once again celebrate one of our country's patriotic holidays, Independence Day, also known as the 4th of July. The other two major patriotic holidays are Memorial Day and Veterans Day, whereas Flag Day is a minor one that people seem to miss. Inevitably, on the three major patriotic holidays, LGB people have a desire to write articles about the need to repeal Don't Ask, Don't Tell. I am fully supportive of the need to repeal this stupid law. What I'm not happy about is that in these discussions and articles, transgender veterans are always left out.

Excerpt: They are, of course, talking about a woman who calls herself "Thomas Beatie" who cut off her breasts and takes testosterone to make her body look masculine, but did keep her female reproductive organs and impregnated himself with frozen sperm.

Excerpt: Reported MassResistance.com: "Supported by politicians, corporations and public schools, Northampton's 'Gay Pride Parade' included gruesome display of body mutilations – women who've cut their breasts off march shirtless in defiance of homophobic society – women who have purposefully had their breasts surgically cut off because they want to become men. They removed their shirts and paraded their scars in public, after taking male hormones – with several of them prominently growing facial hair."

This Thursday, June 26, the House Education and Labor Committee's Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor and Pensions will hold a hearing on discrimination against transgender employees. Congressman Robert Andrews (D-NJ) will chair this historic hearing, the first Congressional hearing on transgender issues and gender identity discrimination in the workplace.

In May, the American Psychiatric Association announced the makeup of the team responsible for revising the fifth (and latest) edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, known as the DSM-V.

If she identifies as a woman, she is a woman. But that is obviously too much for the state of Virginia to understand, so they are trying to figure out if they should prosecute a husband and wife for getting married, because it turns out the wife is an MTF. So technically they are violating the same sex marriage. Since a transgender woman's personhood is not recognized by the state.

Excerpt: So Joseph Fiennes. He's a married father of two who tells his family he's a transsexual. There isn't a lot of news about Pretty/Handsome other than that, apart from the fact that Joseph Fiennes is in it, as is Carrie-Anne Moss, Blythe Danner and Robert Wagner.

While her transformation from man to woman is a dramatic tale in itself – interrupted by the sudden delisting of the surgical procedure – the story of her journey, from being an outcast with only one friend and never a date, to an activist and leader, is inspirational, too.

Her experience has elevated the profile of this city's tiny transgendered population and illuminated the human rights transgressions against those who are different in our society.

WHEN Thomas Beatie gives birth in the next few weeks to a baby girl, the blessed event will mark both a personal milestone and a strange and wondrous crossroads in the evolution of American pop culture.

Being transgender has a dramatic impact on one's life, part of which is predictable and part of which is unforeseen. These effects are shared by the person's family, who may feel that trust is shattered and their lives have been flipped upside down. Some go through a kind of grieving process. In some circumstances,with time, couples are willing and able to stay together, even though their relationship has changed drastically. Others never recover from the perceived deceit, and families split apart. When children are involved, things can get even more complicated.

Families handle their transgender members differently, as The Telegraph explores today in its series. This is the Cannon family's story.

[Bahrain] Bahraini Court Rules Former Woman Now MaleOnce a woman, a Bahraini man has won his fight to be legally recognised as male and says that by being the first to publicly announce his transformation he has softened Arab society's rigid views on gender.Bahraini woman wins battle to become a manA Bahraini man won his three-year legal battle to have his sex change officially recognized by the courts, press reports said on Thursday, in a culture where such topics are seen as taboo.

[TN, USA] Transgender trucker sues for job discriminationBacked by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, 33-year-old transwoman Kaylee Seals filed a federal lawsuit against her former employer on Thursday, alleging discrimination and retaliation due to her gender expression.

[FL, USA] Nun's the word for this GLBT gangThey join because they have a calling to minister to the community and help others. They wear habits, take vows and call each other sister.Only these sisters aren't actual nuns. They aren't even women.Instead, they are the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a non-religious group of mostly gay men devoted to volunteer service and human rights, in a lighthearted way.

Within two hours of coming out as transgendered to her Human Resources department, corporate jet pilot Jamy Spradlin was put on paid administrative leave. To make matters worse, the Federal Aviation Administration delayed renewing her license to fly for nearly a year while they evaluated her psyche for stability after beginning hormone replacement therapy.

PAC to subpoena Nizah Morris DA recordsIn an unprecedented move, the city's Police Advisory Commission voted unanimously last week to subpoena records from the District Attorney's Office related to cell-phone use by police officers involved in a "courtesy ride" for a transgender woman in 2002.Nizah Morris, 47, was found with a fatal head wound in Center City shortly after Philadelphia police gave her a ride during the early-morning hours of Dec. 22, 2002.

The Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender civil rights organization, today called for a criminal investigation into the case of police brutality against a transgender woman. A newly released video out of Memphis, Tennessee clearly shows a police officer brutally abusing Duanna Johnson while she was held in the Shelby County Criminal Justice Center. Johnson is a transgender woman, and had been arrested on a charge of prostitution.

One Memphis police officer has been fired and another is on non-enforcement status after a February attack on a transgender woman in the Shelby County Criminal Justice Center that has resulted in a $1.3 million dollar lawsuit.

The House Committee on Education and Labor is tentatively scheduled to hold a hearing on employment discrimination against transgender people on June 26 -- the first congressional hearing to focus primarily on transgender issues. The committee's subcommittee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) will hear testimony on the issue.

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) is the official handbook of U.S. mental health workers. Created by and a registered trademark of the American Psychiatric Association (APA), the DSM categorizes mental health conditions and the criteria for diagnosing them.

Calls to boycott this year's Human Rights Campaign gala dinner in San Francisco are growing louder as the national group's July 26 fundraiser grows nearer. The Washington, D.C.-based LGBT lobbyist organization upset many in the Bay Area's LGBT community last year when it backed passage of a federal Employment Non-Discrimination Act stripped of gender identity protections.